Remembering Jacintha the royal nurse

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I just felt the need to acknowledge the passing of one of our own. I feel tremendous sadness that Jacintha ,the Royals nurse felt the need to take her own life. It is worth pausing perhaps to consider how she felt. Easy perhaps,for some to see her actions as extreme but how would we fair under that worldwide scrutiny and ensnarement I feel for her circumstances. I too would have likely blurted out information .After all ,would I question a Queen's request or tell her it's a breach of HIPPA, absolutely not.

It is not for me to judge her but see her pain. More importantly, I invite everyone to take a few moments to send love Jacintha's way. May we recognize those she served helped and loved along the way. May we as nurses nurture her in death from the sisterhood (and brotherhood ) we share.. May we simply wish her love and peace. Although we did not personally harm her perhaps we can collectively offer her the "I am sorry " that should have be said.
May her memory invite us all to be kinder, gentler and more loving.

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I feel terribly for this nurse, and the pressure she must have felt from the moment she answered the phone until her death. I feel equally as awful for her family, as I know that she has two children who now don't have a mother. And I feel bad for William and Kate, who should be celebrating their pregnancy and now have to deal with the repercussions of what has happened.

I'm unfamiliar with privacy laws in the UK, since I practice in the United States, but please always be aware of your country's laws and don't be afraid to say no to somebody, regardless of who they claim to be. My hospital often receives high-profile patients, and our staff has to field phone calls from high-ranking officials and celebrities as a result. It is brought up in our training when we are first on-boarded there. We had a well-known politician admitted to our hospital within the past couple of years, for instance. Somebody claiming to be the President called to check on him/her three times. Come to find out, it was only actually the President one time... even so, the amount of information that we'd be able to divulge to him would've been extremely limited in nature anyway because of the law. Fortunately, none of our staff divulged any information about the patient's condition over the phone.

Horrible. Goes to show how seriously nurses take their jobs, and when there's an error how devastating it can be. She is not the first, nor I'm sure the last, to take her own life after an event/error. Hospitals absolutely need to provide support to nurses after events like this.

One correction though, it was my understanding that Jacintha was not the nurse caring for Kate. Rather, the nurse who transferred the call to Kate's nurse:

"The mum-of-two had been duped into putting through a hoax call to Kate’s nurse from Aussie DJs pretending to be the Queen and Prince Charles.
Devoted Jacintha was on reception when she took the call from 2Day FM pranksters Mel Greig and Michael Christian and transferred them to another nurse who gave out sensitive information about sick Kate."

I don't know why, but this makes it even more sad to me. She wasn't even the one who divulged information over the phone, and yet she still took her own life. Really highlights how something like this can be devastating to a nurse, not just professionally, but personally as well.

I don't know how the administrative hospital machine works in England, but judging from how I the US hospital administration/nursing administration would internally invesitigate this, I think the adminstration was probably coming down pretty hard on her and the other nurse. I think there were plenty of threats of prosecution, firing and licensure involved that pushed this nurse to suicide. Even though the hospital CEO said there was not- I don't believe it. I think there was more done( hard ball punative action threats) on the hospital's and nursing administrations part than they are now willing to admit to the rest of the world given the devastating outcome. If this is tue, I think it was the hospital's and nursing administration's threats that pushed that nurse to suicide more so than the call itself.
In these news pieces it does say that is the hospital where the royals(old Prince Philip with his chest pains, stent and bladder infection this summer) and other dignitaries in England go fortheir healthcare. I think thoses nurses are judged and evaluated very harshly. I think that is one hospital where it is very difficult to get a job at.

this may be a dumb question, but does the UK have their version of HIPPA? as in, yes she is mortified for being part of a joke and having her coworkers know she messed up, but did she actually commit a crime?

i would think the one who ruined her career would be the blabbermouth who she transferred the call to.

sad because the hospital (at least through their post suicide PR statement) appeared to be supporting her.

she transferred the call, and yeah it was not smart, but it was not a reason to kill yourself.

i hope none of us make a mistake and think that our lives are no longer worth living.

I think there was more done( hard ball punative action threats) on the hospital's and nursing administrations part than they are now willing to admit to the rest of the world given the devastating outcome. If this is tue, I think it was the hospital's and nursing administration's threats that pushed that nurse to suicide more so than the call itself..

hmm excellent point! of course i read this after i had just posted! ha

What security measures should I take to protect the personal data I hold
Click on health and scroll down to where it says Data protection, the info below pops up

For other security:Shred all your confidential paper waste.

Check the physical security of your premises.

Train your staff:

so they know what is expected of them; to be wary of people who may try to trick them into giving out personal details; so that they can be prosecuted if they deliberately give out personal details without permission; to use a strong password - these are long (at least seven characters) and have a combination of upper and lower case letters, numbers and the special keyboard characters like the asterisk or currency symbols; not to send offensive emails about other people, their private lives or anything else that could bring your organisation into disrepute;

King Edward VII Hospital- Sister Agnes

The nurses are called sisters in England. Hospital was named after Sister Agnes, one of King Edward's numerous(56 in number) mistresses

This hospital has one Nursing position open: for an assistant Nurse Manager in the ortho OR ( they call the OR a theater in England) salary is( USD) $61,000/year or 38,000/yr in pounds. The doctors (are called consultants in England) are hand picked for this hospital. The hospital states it has never had a case of MRSA or c-diff. There are videos on it's website about the hospital and the patient rooms and how clean it is. they boast the "no MRSA and no c-diff " is due to their "excellent" nurse patient ratio's. Interesting.

Why is a nurse doing switchboard duties?? The nurses in England are all BSN's or more advanced degrees.